The Photograph

"Impressing how long you needed to write Lily this little letter and ask her to meet you at Florescue's, Prongs, but it isn't bad. You even sound sensible in it, Lily will like that. I bet she will say yes. It definitely is easier for you to write that letter than for me to write mine. Well, I'm telling Remus face to face, probably in Diagon Alley."

"Do that, you should get over with it as soon as possible. And don't forget, the deadline is when we get off the train."

Chapter 4- Diagon Alley

Lily soon answered James' letter, saying that she was looking forward to meeting him at Florescue's Ice Cream Parlour. By Monday evening, both James and Sirius were nervous wrecks.

"What if I act really stupid around Lily? She will hate me!"

"You've always behaved stupid around her, it won't make any difference. She will just think you are acting as always."

"But this the first thing you could consider as a date between us. I'll mess everything up!"

"She agreed to meet you. You have pretty much won her over, I don't think you will chase her away that quickly."

"But…"

"Everything will be fine between you and Lily but how will I tell Remus? I'll never be able to just say that I'm in love with him."

"Tell him you're gay and see how he reacts. Ask him if he would mind if a guy would be in love with him. I don't know. If you don't know what to say, just kiss him and see what happens. Do you think I should take Lily's hand in the café?"

"You're a great help, Prongs. I don't want to scare him away, I want him to understand how I feel. And I don't want to be sappy either…"

"What am I supposed to do if I run out of things to say? I've never had a real conversation with Lily, I don't even know what she's interested in."

"Ask her about her holidays, talk about what the new school year, whatever. You'll think of something, after all you are James Potter and the fabulous James Potter always has something to talk about, even if he cuts off his best friend whenever he asks for advice."

"Sorry Padfoot but I'm too nervous about seeing Lily to worry about how you should tell Remus about your undying love for him. Besides, you're not really listening to me either because you are too busy whining that you don't know how to talk to our dear little Moony."

"Well, I really don't know how to but I think the two of us are starting to sound really insane. Maybe we should just both quit talking for once and go to bed, there isn't really much else to do…except of course if you want to start a pillow fight with me."

Sirius threw a pillow at James who protested.

"You are totally mad, Padfoot. Tomorrow could be so important for both of us and all you think of doing is starting a pillow fight."

With this, James also grabbed a pillow and attacked Sirius and in no time at all, the two of them were in the middle of a pillow fight. Finally, they both collapsed onto the floor breathless and laughing.

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Though the two friends were so excited, they slept late, knowing they were only going to Diagon Alley in the early afternoon. The day was bright and sunny when they got up in the late morning and quickly got ready.

At lunch (they skipped breakfast), James parents both wondered what was wrong with the boys because they could hardly hide their excitement but James' parents didn't say anything, assuming they were just looking forwards to seeing their classmates again.

After lunch, they finally left for Diagon Alley, where they went to the Leaky Cauldron to meet Remus, who was already waiting there for them.

They quickly said hello and James, who was of course watching his friends closely, noticed how overjoyed Remus was to see them, mostly Sirius, though he tried to pretend he was just as happy to see James. Sirius seemed to be a little tense around Remus, James suspected this was mostly because he knew that James would probably be watching them closely now that he knew how Sirius felt about Remus.

The three of them set of through the crowds of people in Diagon Alley, talking about their holidays and what they had done. Remus was surprised to hear that Lily had agreed to meet with James but said that it had been time something finally happened between them.

They bought their books for their last year of school after agreeing that it was strange that they would soon be done with school and would have to decide what to do afterwards. Then they looked into a few more shops, James getting giddy and checking his watch every few minutes to make sure he wouldn't be late.

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Finally, James left Sirius and Remus and went towards Florescue's although he was at least ten minutes too early. He sat down at a table and waited for her to arrive.

James quickly realised that if he had nothing to take his mind off Lily, he would start worrying about all the things that could go wrong. What if she had just said she would come to make fun of him? Had he really told her to come at four o'clock or had he said three o'clock? Would he be too embarrassed to say a single word to her?

James knew that most of his fears were totally irrational and tried to think about other things, mostly about Sirius and Remus. Would Sirius tell Remus how he felt today or on the train tomorrow or would James have to find a way of telling Remus?

Maybe he should talk with Remus and set him the same ultimatum. That would be a strange idea; both of them forced to tell each other that they were in love. There would only be a slight problem if neither of them had the courage to, they wouldn't believe James if he told them the other was in love with them after he had set up the ultimatum. No, it wouldn't be a good idea, he would have to rely on Sirius to tell Remus or tell Remus himself.

It was totally clear for James now that Remus liked Sirius as well though. Once he had seen it on the photo, it was so obvious that James wondered why he hadn't noticed earlier.

James was torn from his thoughts when Lily arrived. Somehow she looked more beautiful than ever, her red hair seemed to glow in the sunlight and her sapphire green eyes sparkled as she greeted him. Despite his earlier doubts, James did not lose his voice when he saw her and after they had ordered their ice-creams, they soon found topics they could talk about and quickly had a lively conversation going.

After they had talked a while, James took together all his courage and put his hand onto Lily's. She didn't pull her hand away as he had feared she might but left it there and smiled warmly at him.

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In the meantime, Sirius and Remus walked through the masses of people, many of them children and teenagers attending Hogwarts as well. The uncomfortable feeling Sirius had had at the beginning had passed, maybe because James was no longer there to watch how he acted around Remus.

As they walked along talking about everything they had done during the holidays, Sirius tried to find the right situation to tell Remus what he felt. He regretted not having made a real plan of how to say it but he couldn't change it anymore. He would just have to find a way to tell Remus before they got off the train tomorrow.

Without noticing where they had been going, they came past Florescue's where James was sitting, holding Lily's hand as they quickly realised.

"It almost looks as if James is finally having some luck with Lily. It really was about time," Sirius said.

"Yes, I don't even remember how everything started but he has been waiting for her to go out with him for ages. I think she would have gone out with him earlier if he hadn't asked her out all the time. She often asked me questions about James while we were doing our prefect duties together. She probably thought I didn't notice she was interested in James but I did. It's a good thing she finally gave in, I think it was when James asked her to be on that photo. I'd like to see that photo sometime, there are often so many details to be seen on photos. I doubt muggles can see even half as much from their photos as we can from ours."

"You're probably right, there could be quite a lot hidden in photos. Did you really know Lily liked James all that time and never told him?"

"I knew they would figure it out on their own sometime. They needed their own pace to understand it, it wouldn't have been right to tell James and to rush everything like that. They probably would have broken up again quickly, I think they weren't ready for it yet. I guess people usually need quite a long time to realise what they mean to each other if the relationship is to have a chance."

"I don't know. Somebody has to take up the courage to say something some time. Besides, what do you think is the right time to say anything? A year after you realise you like someone? Two years? Or five like James and Lily?"

"I don't think you can really express it in years. There just isn't any use in getting together without knowing the other person quite well already. I mean, you need to know a few of the others habits and maybe secrets if you want the relationship to work. It wouldn't do any good if somebody found out something like me being a werewolf in the middle of a relationship, for example. I guess that's one of the reasons I haven't tried starting a relationship with somebody."

"And… what if somebody knew about you being a werewolf and didn't mind?"

"That would probably be the only possibility. But you guys are the only ones that know about it and I'm not about to start telling the whole world I'm a werewolf. Besides, there would be other complications about my finding someone to be together with."

"Err…Remus, well…I…err…"

But Remus wasn't listening anymore.

"Look, Sirius! There's Peter! He must have returned from Italy earlier than he thought he would. Hey Peter! Peter!"

Remus ran towards Peter and Sirius followed him slower, cursing himself for not having told Remus how he felt about him.

I know how you've all been looking forward to this new chapter and here it is! I hope you liked it. (Ooops,
I think I sonded a bit like James with his oversized ego there, didn't I?

I should really be doing other things right now, like reading a book ("Effi Briest") for German lessons (Urrgh, I hate my teacher and she hates me back. There, that just needed to be said.). Anyway, I prefered posting a new chapter for you, ain't I nice? Ok, I admit: I'm only doing it for the reviews ; P hint, hint